TGS 2004: Nightmare Before Christmas - Progress Report

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Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack be kicking ass with a gob of stick.

By Ed Lewis

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was a hell of a movie with some smooth CG/stop-motion animation and plenty of songs that stick with you long after the final credits. When the game was announced we admit that we had some reservations about one of our favorite screen anti-heroes becoming a videogame character. It wasn't as much of a shock as Fight Club, that still holds the record, but it was up there. With some trepidation, we approached the Capcom booth at Tokyo Game Show and played around a little with Jack. The result is Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge that features a combo-happy battle system and a few rhythmic elements for good measure.

The Jack in the game is not quite the Jack you remember from the movie. Here, Jack has a rubber soul that is a sticky green gob that is wrapped around Jack's right wrist when he's not attacking anyone. When it is being used, the rubber soul looks like one of those sticky grabbers that you can get with a quarter or two from a gumball vending machine. There is a sticky hand that reaches out at the end and it can be used to smack enemies around or grab them for some extra fun. One poor sucker can be picked up and thrown into another or held onto and used as a giant club until he falls to pieces completely. when not fighting, this can be used for grabbing onto hooks for otherwise inaccessible areas.

Jack's moves aren't so cut and dry to just have a couple of tricks up his skinny sleeves either. He can spin for a spiraling soul attack or keep up the hits and get a combo going. Just like with another Capcom game at the show, Devil May Cry 3, Nightmare Before Christmas rewards players for racking up a series of successful attacks with a combo counter that appears on the screen. Get ten hits and the screen shouts "Happy Halloween" or get up to 30 hits for "Trick or Treat." there didn't appear to be any benefit for getting a better number except for the glory of it all, but this may become more important as the game gets closer to release. The only drawback is that the enemies are still pretty easy to fend off. Think of the zombies from Dawn of the Dead and not 28 Days Later and that's pretty much it.

In addition to the regular form of Jack, although we know the whole soul thing isn't regular, there are two other parts for Jack to play. These are the Pumpkin King and Christmas Jack and can be toggled to with the shoulder buttons. While playing as Pumpkin King, Jack can spit out a huge plume of fire or cause a small radius around him to burst into flames. Both are fantastic party tricks and help to smoke (get it, it's fire-related) the nearby opponents.

The other form, Christmas Jack, is a little more subtle since he can't actually do any direct damage. Instead, Christmas Jack can drop down gift-wrapped boxes onto the ground. After being dropped, these boxes can be activated for an extra surprise. One of the boxes opens up with a bang and stuns anyone nearby. The other one freezes anyone next to it and encases them in a block of ice. Both of these are ideal for causing a distraction so that Jack can go back to normal and attack the stuck enemies. While only these two were available in the demo on the floor, it was pretty clear form the menu system that Christmas Jack would get some more presents for all the naughty boys in the neighborhood.

In the demo, most of the enemies we fought were skeletons of some sort or another and all of them served as perfect fodder for learning Jack's set of moves and combos and getting a killer number on the combo scale. when we faced Oogie Boogie, however, there was a new element of play that revealed itself and that was the rhythm game. By striking at good ol' Oogie enough times, we were able to knock musical notes off of him. By collecting enough to fill up a music bar, Jack was able to enter into a rhythm mini-game and cause tons of extra damage. In our case, this was enough to finish of Oogie for good and clear the level. And with that we were done.

After this all too brief introduction to the game, Nightmare Before Christmas is looking a little better than it did at E3. Most likely there will be a set of new skills to go along with the new presents for Christmas Jack and hopefully the combo counter will factor into that. It was surprising at first to see scrawny Jack be spinning and flinging and wielding his soul for some rapid-fire attacks, but the idea is becoming more appealing. While there is the danger of this becoming Jack May Cry that will mostly appeal to hardcore fans, we hope that this will remain faithful to the source and create a game that uses the story and even adds to it. It's a tall order perhaps, but we like to think big.

With the game coming out next year there is plenty of time left before the final version is in our hands and things could still change in the game itself. Be sure to check back for more info about our favorite Santa Claus ever.